Daily Pressure

That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits (our inner beings) are being renewed every day.  ( 2 Corinthians 4:16)

On this first day of the New Year many of us are making our resolutions on how to improve for the coming year.  Most of us fail at those goals & end up just adding additional pressure on ourselves that we really don't need. 

We all live under pressure & unfortunately we pass that pressure onto the people around us.   So how do we effectively live with pressure?  Our Biblical example is the Apostle Paul.    He was under pressure that I can only imagine...beatings, sleepless nights, being opposed by the Gentiles & his own people.  Plus he had the daily anxiety of taking care of the early churches & guiding them.

All Christians face troubles & it is easy to focus on the pain instead of our ultimate goal.   It is easy to lose heart & quit.  Our troubles should not diminish our faith or disillusion us. We must focus on the reward for our faith...eternal joy.  Our ultimate hope is the realization that after all the pain & pressure of this world,  that there is life after death!

Come to God with Confidence

Dear friends, if our conscience is clear, we can come to God with bold confidence.  And we will receive whatever we request because we obey him and do the things that please him. And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us.  Those who obey God's commandments live in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Holy Spirit lives in us. ( 1 John 3:21-24 )

Another translation says, "if our hearts do not condemn us & if we know that He hears us".   Often we refuse the power of prayer because of what we've done or been that makes us feel we have no right to be in God's presence.

But the Lord is not outdone, even by our failures. He says, "Come to me just as you are!"  Why then do we pray so seldom, & only when we are in trouble?  Our reluctance to pray is our resistance to God. But eventually life caves in, and we face problems too great for us. God rushes in to help us in the hope that we will be so amazed at what He can do with our problems that we will begin to trust Him with our potentials.

Pray to Receive the Mind of God

And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. (John 14: 13, 14)

If God knows not only the past, but also the future, how dare we tell Him what is best for the future?  This is a knotty question.  There are four parts to the answer given to us in the Bible.  First, we pray because we have been motivated to prayer by the very God to whom we pray.

Most of us believe that prayer is initiated by us when we blunder into God's presence wih our requests and concerns. Not at all.  Our prayer is response. When a need comes to our mind and we pray, it is because God has an answer to give us for that concern.  The answer is ready when we are moved to pray.

Secondly, we pray not so much to change but to receive the mind of God. As we pray our prayers and listen to God, He is able and willing to impress His mind upon us.  Thirdly, we pray because God has ordained that there are resources of His power and love which will not be released until we pray. He has called us to be His partners in the world. He desires that we come to Him as children to share our needs with Him.

Give Your Burdens to God

Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you. (Psalm 55:22 NKJB)

Most of us ride in God's grace with a load still on our backs because we find it difficult to take our troubles off and entrust them to God.   To forgive means to forget and yet many of us carry the memory of past failures of ourselves and others on our backs.

Who's your burden? Whom do you carry emotionally, in memory, or in conscience? Who causes you difficult reactions of guilt, fear, frustration, or anger? That person belongs to God. He's carrying him or her too, you know! Isn't it about time to take the load off, face the unresolved dynamics of the relationship, and forgive and forget?

Nothing hurts more than a wound from a friend. There may be times when friends lovingly confront you in order to help you. Real friends stick by you in times of trouble and bring healing, love, acceptance, and understanding. What kind of friend are you? Don't betray those you love.

God wants us to give our burdens to him, but often we continue to bear them ourselves even when we say we are trusting in him. Trust the same strength that sustains you to carry your cares also. 

Answered Prayer

I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking to me about their needs, I will go ahead & answer their prayers! (Isaiah 65:24)

This is one of the most exciting verses on prayer in the Old Testament. This reminds us that prayer begins with God. He puts that desire in our heart & then gives us the courage to ask for that desire.  As humans sometimes we are afraid to ask God for things but we must realize that if He has placed that desire in our heart He is ready to give it to us.  God has more prepared for us than we are prepared to ask.  Instead of just asking for things from God, we need to spend time in prayer to seek what it is that God wants us to ask for.  That way our asking stays in line with His will.  God gives us the desire to pray...it is a gift.  We should not pray to get God's attention, rather focus on what He has to say to us.  Once we pray we then need to listen to what He has to say!

God can use our imaginations to give us a picture of what He has for us...but we must seek Him with all of our hearts. If we aim for nothing we are not taking God at His Word.  We will just become what we envision. As you pray let God paint a mind picture of what He wants you to be & do.

Peace through Prayer

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God (Psalm 42:1 NKJB).

There is a difference between praying our prayers & really praying.  We should want a relationship with God above anything else in the world.  Most people pray without really wanting intimacy with God.

I thirst for God, the living God, When can I come and stand before him? (Psalms 42:2) - Do you want God that much?  Be honest.  Talk to God about how you are really feeling!  That kind of honesty in prayer will pave the way for God to heal the real needs & not just take care of the whims.  

Use Psalm 42 as a model on how to pray to God.  This will lead you into deeper levels of prayer.  Let the steadfast love of God draw you back to the loving arms of the Father.  Remembering what God has done in your life will lead you to expect answers to your prayers.

Stop Complaining!

I said to myself, "I'm going to quit complaining!" (Psalm 39:1 TLB)

There are two choices we can make when we are faced with things that trouble us, either about ourselves or others.   We can complain or we can confess.   We need to learn one from the other, only then can we have greatness in Christ.

The Bible is very honest about human nature...after all who knows us best?  Our creator who made us!  Psalm 39 gives us a plan on how to deal with frustration.   God wants to hear our honest feelings IF we are ready to take them to confession. 

We all have complaints about our job, money, or situation, but complaining to others may make them think that God cannot take care of us.   We should take our complaints directly to God.  When we turn our complaints into confession we link ourselves to the power of God.